Hi all,

Any advice and input is greatly appreciated, The forum helps a lot of people such as myself to gain a better understanding of a possible underlying issue as we all know some garages / mechanics out there assume you have unlimited spending budgets when it comes to working on a range rover from the second they realise you have a rrs!

Anyhow, After spending £400 on two new Pirelli Scorpion Zero 20" rear tyres I picked my car up from the local kwik fit garage once the tyres had been replaced, I instantly noticed they had put the wheels on the wrong way (So the previous drivers side rear wheel + new tyre was now on the passenger rear and the passenger rear wheel + new tyre was on the driver’s side rear) I did not comment on this as they had took almost 2 days to get the tyres and fit them so I assumed all would be ok, after all they are both the same wheels and both new tyres!

After leaving the kwik fit depot I got 10-12 miles down the road and onto the motor way building speed up to 70mph, As I got to about 55-60 I noticed the steering wheel starting to shake/vibrate and instantly assumed they had not done the alignment/tracking correctly and a second or two later I was at 70mph with the shaking / vibrating becoming considerably worse... I started to slow down to 50 as I honestly thought they had not done the wheel tight enough and that it was coming off it was that bad!!

I slowed down and pulled into nearest lay by and jumped out to check the rear wheels, the first wheel I checked was the drivers rear and instantly noticed the wheel hub/disk hub was glowing hot and steam / smoke coming from the hub, I quickly checked the passenger rear and was nothing like the driver’s rear and certainly was no smoke / steam coming from the passenger’s rear.

I had no idea what the issue was so quickly phoned kwik fit to give them a grilling as this had never happened before and seemed to coincidental to just occur out the blue, they said they would call me back in 10 mins and would try look into it while I sit tight in the emergency layby.

The area manager then phoned me and asked me to drive the vehicle to a nearest kwik fit (That being 4 miles away) I explained the condition the car was in and that I was worried the wheel was either to tight or not tight enough and as I have no mechanical experience I was not able to give a good enough description over the phone... he insisted it should be ok to drive to a local depot and that a mechanic will look into the problem right away... The time was now 5:35pm and was rush hour traffic so I set off for the local nearest depot (4 miles to go).

Unfortunately, I arrived at 5:50pm due to rush hour traffic (The depot closes at 6:00pm), When I arrived the garage manager had no idea what I was talking about and the area manager had not contacted them. Within 5 minutes of me arriving and speaking to the garage manager the phone rang and once he had spoken to the guy on the phone he came over to me and said it was the area manager on the phone and that they could not look at the vehicle till the morning as they were very eager to close the depot and said we extremely suggest you leave the car here and allow someone to check it over in the morning. I said to him how on earth will I get home (20+ miles) and why on earth have I been told to bring my vehicle to this depot to now be told I can’t drive the car and I am stranded in derby city centre with no car and no way to get home other than a £30 taxi?!

The garage manager said we suggest leaving the car in case the breaking system locks up and puts you and other road users at danger so obviously that said I did not want to risk any other road user from my cars mechanical fault.

I asked The garage manager whom is also a mechanic what the possible cause was because they were insisting it was nothing to do with the work they had done although how could he/they be sure without even taking the wheel off because it was now 6pm and wanted to rush home?!!

I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I asked what may have caused it if their work had not and he said the electric parking brake shoes inside the hub could be binding and that they will strip it down tomorrow. I asked what parts / work could and will be required just off first view (even though nothing had been taken off, not even jacked up or anything else) other than you could clearly see how hot the hub had got. and he said you will need a new set of rear disk and pads as the heat would have damaged them.

The next day comes and I speak to kwik fit who had test drove the car and apparently had the wheels off, up on rams and everything else they say. And low and behold they can’t find any issue with their work and also told me they can’t inspect the parking break as they don’t have the specialist equipment to re-calibrate the break and put it all back together and said to come and collect the car as the problem has not happened again on their 1-mile test drive and they are unable to do any work what so ever due to this (Not having the equipment Bulls***t!)

I’m now in a position of who to believe and what to believe?!

Has anyone ever heard of such issue before? What could cause the wheel hub/drum to heat up in that manor from a motorway cruise up to 70mph and then make the steering wheel shake in a manor I assumed the wheel was falling off (While no breaking is applied).

Sorry to ramble on so much, I wanted to give a full overview to try and paint a better picture of what could have happened and also the shocking experience suffered from kwik fit.

Thanks,
Ben

Kwik-fit ,,sorry to hear about your problem but a 5 year old knows more than a kwik fit mechanic.as for the wheel wobble,if they changed the rear worn tyres to the front & didn't check the balancing this could be your problem for the wobble,as for the brakes getting hot,without looking at the car it could be a couple of problems & they should have checked your car for you there & then instead of wanting to rush home.
We have changed hundreds of tyres on RR & never had a problem with the brakes so unless it's a coincidence that the pads were on the way out or stuck but changing a wheel they shouldn't have disturbed the brakes.

Andy. Andy.
21 Ford Ranger
Gone but not forgotten
Focus RS Red Edition
2015 RRS AB Fuji.
2014 RRS SC Santorini
2016 VW Amarok
2014 RRS AB Fuji
2012 RRS Red Edition Fuji
2015 Nissan Navara
2012 RRS SE Santorini
2008 RRS White
2007 RRS Santorino

Extreme vibration could be a loose wheel. Had that recently and it is quite severe. Not sure why that would cause high temps in the brake though. Only thing I can think would be the brake binding which might happen if they caused some damage but how they could is beyond me. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

May be beyond you Wayne, now Kwik-fit that is an entirely different matter.

Cheers
Col

Good point Col  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Its got me intrigued, bad vibration, heat up. I guess wheel bearing, but that would just not fix itself after second inspection, and too spooky after just having tyre changed. My other guess could the calliper got a real big clout when they dropped the wheel off and dislodged a pad of something (would that even be possible?), and the vibration was either pad loose and binding/jumping around in the calliper (causing the heat and banging) or the wheel was not done up tight, but that would then require 2 major fouls in one job

Mind just boggles how it all seemed to just fix itself would love to know the end. keep us posted!

Do you use the EPB?

If not, did Kwik-Fit apply the EPB when it was in the ramp, and the shoes are now binding due to lack of use?

Disco Mikey is spot on , as always. It would have been the electric parking brake binding, I have had the same thing happen to me. Once it had cooled and probably the shoes inside the rear disc had settled to a point where they just clear the disc bell, all is well again. I suspect that the shoes are partially seized, or there is a lot of rusty scale build up inside the disc.

The cure is to strip and free/lubricate/readjust the parking brake shoes. Please do not ask Kwikfit to do this!!

Find a sensible independent garage and a sensible independent tyre fitter for future reference.

Adam..

You don't need special tools to re-calibrate the E-brake drum pads and this video proves it.



You are being taken for a fool.

hat disco mikey said mine did the same mate and tried to through me off the A19 as one side locked on managed to lim home but the vibration and hub as you said was same only the dead truely know peace,
Bootneck its not a job its a way of life!

CANROVER wrote:

You don't need special tools to re-calibrate the E-brake drum pads and this video proves it.



You are being taken for a fool.

I thought all KwikFit staff had undertaken a full half hour training course  In Spain - 2018 F Pace - Frightened away from the Sports due to crank failures
Gone - A couple of RRS, A couple of Disco's. However thinking of another Sport.